Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1162040
ART + DECORATION 88 A vant Garden, the famed flower shop by event designer Todd Fiscus, makes its Houston debut at River Oaks District Monday, September 16, in the former Forty Five Ten space. Encased in floor-to-ceiling windows under soaring 19- foot ceilings, Avant Garden @ ROD will draw inspiration for its dramatic flora from aristocratic dining rooms of years past, tweaked toward modern. We have no doubt Avant Garden will be an Insta-hit, with one-of-a-kind immersive experiences and sculptural arrangements that celebrate the art of flowers. H oustonian Ronda Carman — self- proclaimed serial e n t e r t a i n e r a n d tabletop fetishist who was named to the 2019 Salonniere 100 list of America's best party hosts — releases her second book this month, coinciding with the launch of her linens collection with San Francisco- based Haute Home. Entertaining at Home: Inspirations from Celebrated Hosts (Rizzoli) is a luscious jaunt through both lavish and casual at-home affairs thrown by stylish tastemakers across the country, from a cocktail supper at Julia Reed's New Orleans apartment to lunch at socialite Lynn Wyatt's iconic Texas ranch. More than a few Texans are included — Carman herself, Denise and Scott McGaha, Found's Ruth Davis, Mecox's Mac Hoak and Fred Perkins, Courtnay Tartt Elias, Caroline Harper Knapp, Katie Scott, Kimberly Whitman, Cathy Kincaid, Shelly Rosenberg and Pam Kelley. The book brims with recipe, fête, and tablescape ideas, with personalized entertaining stories that will have you pulling out your china and calling the calligrapher. Carman's collection of linen napkins with Jane Leider's Haute Home gives you even more reason to throw your own dinner party. Dubbed The Four Seasons, there are 12 hand-embroidered designs from lobsters to leaves and spiders, each is generous in scale, made of 100 percent linen, with a fanciful scalloped-edge finish. Linens $35 each, at rondacarman. com. Ronda Carman will sign books at Found Thursday, September 26; rsvp@ foundforthehome.com. Anne Lee Phillips T hrough early November, visitors to Discovery Green will encounter an 11-foot-high lady's pump in a startling shade of fuchsia; gargantuan umbrellas serenely moored in Kinder Lake's model boat basin; a mammoth magenta lightbulb; and two more larger-than-life sculptures of common objects, all rendered in power-coated OUR WORLD JUST BECOME PRETTIER THIS JUST IN PUMPIN' IT AT DISCOVERY GREEN DINNER PARTY IN THE MAKING steel. The artist, senior British master Michael Craig-Martin, is no stranger to Dallas audiences (he was honored with a citywide exhibition in 2015 timed to the Dallas Art Fair), but this is his first solo in Houston. The Yale-educated, London-based painter and sculptor began as a conceptualist before taking a sharp turn to a hybrid brand of Pop minimalism — one that's as deceptively simple as a Matisse cutout. The idea for presenting this exhibition in Houston was hatched by Discovery Green public art chair Judy Nyquist; the al fresco sculptural installation is presented in partnership with the artist's gallery, Gagosian. Weingarten Art Group provided professional art services. "The Shape of Things: Michael Craig-Martin at Discovery Green," through November 3, at Discovery Green; discoverygreen. com. Catherine D. Anspon COURTESY THE ARTIST AND DISCOVERY GREEN. PHOTO SARAH NIELSEN COURTESY THE ARTIST AND DISCOVERY GREEN. PHOTOS DANIEL ORTIZ. Michael Craig-Martin's High Heel (pink), 2013, at Discovery Green Michael Craig-Martin's Gate (white), 2011, at Discovery Gree Michael Craig-Martin's Wheelbarrow (red), 2013, at Discovery Green MATTHEW MEAD Lobster napkin, Ronda Carman for Haute Home